Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

A movie review

*** Warning: Contains spoilers about the movie and the book. ***

Overall, I thought it was a very good movie. They started with the longest book (about 870 some pages in the US hardcover edition) and made a movie that was a "mere" 2 hours, 15 minutes (or so). By and large, the edits they made were good. I felt that, for the first time since the first book, they didn't cut anything crucial. Now, a great many people and things didn't get nearly as much screen time as I would have liked. Being a big fan of the books, though, I'd want all my favorite characters to have lots of screen time, and it just didn't happen.

The two people who got massive amounts of screen time were Harry and the new professor, Dolores Umbridge. This isn't a bad thing; they're both REALLY central to the book. However: (1) Harry's time absolutely dominates. Ron and Hermione are relegated from secondary characters to darn near extras. I felt these two were particularly neglected. (2) Umbridge's time is essential, and the few changes they made from the book (for example, 10's of educational decrees instead of about 5-10) worked really well. But she still is just a one book character, and some of her development could have been used to making other people and ideas develop better.

Great parts:
- I loved Grawp in the movie, where in the book I could have taken or left him.
- Luna Lovegood is spot on.
- The finale sequence at the Ministry of Magic is very well done. It is faster than in the book, but honestly, I think the scene in the book drags on a bit. Putting it all in one room works.
- Special effects are terrific. I LOVE the look of the Order and the Death Eaters dueling in the last battle.
- Radcliffe's acting is absolutely wonderful. Gone are the days in "Prisoner of Azkaban" where his crying makes me cringe. He really runs the emotional gamut here, and pulls it off beautifully.

Major beefs:
- The first 10-15 minutes are pretty bad. The plot the way it's been cut works well, but there is almost NO emotion. You're not terrified by the dementors, Mrs. Figg gives no sense of urgency, the anger of the Dursleys isn't pronounced, you're not worried by Harry's expulsion... things don't stop being scene-scene-scene-scene until Harry arrives at Hogwarts.
- Bellatrix avada kedavra's Sirius into the veil; this is a major flaw since in the book he's only stunned before falling through, leaving us to wonder if he's really quite dead or not.
- Fred and George's escape scene is not nearly as delightful as in the movie...and it really wouldn't have taken any more minutes to do it right. Part of the fun is seeing the other professor's not trying to help and watching Umbridge try to magic them away. While seeing her squeal is cute, it loses a lot.
- Harry's scene in Dumbledore's office at the very end has lost nearly all of its emotional depth. We see a calm chat versus Harry's true rage and guilt and sorrow at losing Sirius. Still, we get plenty of angst at other times, so maybe this isn't a huge deal.

I would say that if you haven't seen this yet, you may want to reread or rewatch book or movie 4, but don't reread book 5 just before going, or your brain will be tallying up every little discrepancy. :) Still, fabulous movie. I'll be seeing it again before it leaves theaters.